


Points of Contact

by YukiSkyes



Category: Dishonored (Video Games), Thief (Video Game 2014), Thief (Video Games)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Snark, When two stealthy badasses meet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 00:49:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14726828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YukiSkyes/pseuds/YukiSkyes
Summary: They say the Empress was coming to visit their fair city following the unfortunate death of the Baron.As if things weren't complicated enough already, the suspicious timing of her arrival practically screamed at Garrett to investigate. And if a client also wanted a certain ring the Empress was rumored to wear at all times, well, he wouldn't say no to an extra incentive.He expected he might encounter the Royal Protector. He didn't expect the kind of person he was.





	Points of Contact

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I haven't actually played either of these games. I only watched the walkthroughs, so if anything seems off, please do tell me.

It started with a spark in the upper echelons of society which caught onto the oil of a confused populace with wide ears and loose tongues only a city still rocking in the upheavals of an overthrown rule and a scattered cult could produce. Before long, every street was lit in the inferno of the news that still-recently crowned Empress Emily Kaldwin herself was making a visit to their splendid city.

The timing of her visit so close in the heels of the Primal incident was suspicious. Did she know about it? Would word reach the capital so fast? Would the Baron even share the knowledge of the Primal? He doubted it, but if she _was_ after the Primal… things could get complicated. He still hadn’t found Erin, after all, and he wasn’t about to let anything else happen to her.

Otherwise, the news didn’t really change anything for Garrett. He had no interest in politics and he didn’t care who the next ineffectual autocrat was, but the topic was hard to avoid when it was all anyone talked about.

Feelings were generally mixed about the visit. Some were excited even though they would never so much as catch a glimpse of Her Royal Majesty. The more naïve ones hoped she could somehow magically fix everything while others resented her sudden appearance after they suffered by themselves for so long. They were usually the same ones who’d rather she didn’t send the already beleaguered city into another uproar right on the tailcoats of the last one.

Garrett was inclined to agree with the latter opinion. He could almost smell another riot in the horizon.

That wasn’t even the least of it. Suddenly, every last miscreant in The City from the common pickpocket to the smarmy noble simultaneously seemed to snap out of whatever despondency fell over them. They _all_ wanted a piece of the Empress, like a group of rabid dogs that scented blood in the air. If this royal was even halfway smart with even a little bit of self-preservation, she’d turn tail before setting a foot into The City.

If he could, he’d rather avoid the noise surrounding the Empress, but it was a bit hard to do considering it snuck into even his jobs.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m only bringing you the job, I’m not requesting it myself,” Basso said, spreading his arms with a shrug.

Honestly, Garrett shouldn’t be surprised. The City was full of opportunistic crooks, himself included. He couldn’t say he’d ever tried to rob royalty before, but it shouldn’t be much different from the nobles.

“And who is this client?” Garrett asked.

“Don’t know. Some noble. He was real secretive about his identity.” Basso leaned against the table and wagged his finger over Garrett’s face with an amused smirk. “He was wearing a hood and a mask; the whole works. He said he’d meet you in an alley off Baron’s Way North. Heh, between you and me, I don’t think he’s from around these parts.” He flapped a hand in the air. “Probably followed the Empress all the way out here for a chance at the ring.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “You can say a lot of things about nobles, but you can’t say they’re not dedicated when they have their eye on something.”

“I’ll meet him,” Garrett said, turning to leave.

“What, you serious? You actually going to steal from an _empress?_ ”

Basso sounded amused and a little awed.

“Empress or drunkard, it’s all the same to me,” Garrett replied. “I’ll see you later.”

Finding more information on the Empress’s motives for coming here was an incentive. The job was just a nice bonus.

“Yeah well, if you get caught, make sure you never mention my name! I mean it this time!”

It wasn’t hard to pick out the client. What gave it away wasn’t the white masquerade mask flashing from under the shadows of the hood, but the clothes. Even from a distance, Garrett could tell they were made of fine material in a fashion definitely not of The City. The client was trying to be secretive all right, but he wasn’t doing a very good job disguising everything else about himself, which kind of defeated the purpose. This man couldn’t scream noble any louder if he did actually scream it.

Garrett resisted the urge to snort if only so he didn’t choke on the cloying cologne the noble wore, like he’d jumped into a whole tub of it before arriving here.

This noble would’ve been better off not thinking so highly of his own self-importance that he’d think _anyone_ here would recognize him or care if they did. They’d care more about robbing the clothes off his back now that he’d made himself the most conspicuous target in the area.

He jumped with a short cry when he finally noticed Garrett approaching on quiet feet from the dim surroundings.

“You are the thief, I presume?” the noble asked with a hand over his heart.

The posh in his voice in what Garrett was starting to believe was the universal accent of the wealthy was thicker than the cologne. He had to amend himself. This man _could_ scream noble louder if he did actually scream it.

“Yes.”

“Oh, good.” The noble cleared his throat into his fist. “Well, yes. I was hoping you could retrieve a certain ring from the Empress. She wears it constantly on the middle finger of her left hand. I don’t think she ever takes it off. I’m willing to pay however much you want for it.”

Garrett narrowed his eyes. This noble wasn’t from The City, which meant he couldn’t exactly heft a whole fortune with him, and with the bank already bankrupt courtesy of his truly, the noble had no way of withdrawing more.

“How much, exactly?”

The noble straightened.

“I said, as much—”

Garrett locked eyes with the noble as he prowled closer. The noble froze with his mouth still open mid-sentence.

“How much? _Really?_ ” he asked softly with a hint of warning beneath.

“A-ah…” The noble backed stiffly away, eyes darting around, settling for a brief second back on Garrett, before sliding away again. “Yes, well… um…” He cleared his throat again and there was a faint tremor as he spoke, “please understand that I _would_ offer as much as you want if I could and I’d be more than happy to give you more once I return home! But I’ve uh… only brought about three hundred gold with me and they’re for ah, other expenses so…”

The noble’s hands fluttered fitfully around.

“I don’t get paid, I don’t do your job. Good day,” Garrett said curtly, turning away.

“Ah, wait, wait!”

Garrett glanced behind him as the noble slumped in defeat.

“I’ll… I’ll give two hundred gold _and_ a gold brooch inlaid with gemstones. It _was_ a family heirloom to be worn specifically for special occasions only, but…” His voice actually started wobbling. Garrett was unimpressed. “It’s sure to be worth a lot.”

“Three hundred.”

The noble spluttered.

“Th-three hundred? Are you robbing me of everything?”

“If you can call three hundred gold and a brooch ‘everything’, then I’d have to wonder about your standing as a noble.”

The noble stared at him with wide eyes. Why did he look so surprised that Garrett knew he was a noble when he made it so obvious?

He snapped out of a few moments later and drew himself up in a way that reminded Garrett of a tiny bird puffing its feathers except he couldn’t even call this cute, just laughable.

“Fine, three hundred gold and the family heirloom. I see you rob more than just your targets,” the noble spat bitterly.

Hit a noble’s pride and you also hit his purse.

“You’re asking me to steal from an empress. I should be compensated for the difficulty,” Garrett said with a shrug. “Any other information on her? Where she’s staying? Why she’s here?”

“Why? Well, it’s because this city is an absolute pigsty!” the noble exclaimed with a small laugh of disbelief, looking around and gesturing at the squalid alley they were in, but indicating the bigger city as a whole. “Why an empress would lower herself to visit this place is beyond me,” he sniffed.

“So why would she come here?” Garrett pressed.

“From what I understand, it’s to help get this city back on its legs, goodness knows it needs it, though I can faint comprehend why she insists on doing it in person. Perhaps she is still too young to understand, or maybe her time at the hands of the ruffians who kidnapped her tainted her to be such,” the noble said, crossing his arms and nodding to himself.

Garrett raised a brow at that, but it wasn’t relevant information so he ignored it.

“And? Where is she staying?”

“Oh, yes, that is important, isn’t it? She will be staying in the former Eastwick house considering the state of the Baron’s own manor. Such bad taste to stick an empress in the home of a murdered man,” the noble hmphed.

This noble might not be from The City, but he was certainly up to date with current events, which was suspicious, but far be it for Garrett to care so long as it didn’t affect him.

“It’s also bad taste to hire a thief to steal an empress’s belongings,” Garrett pointed out dryly, continuing over the noble’s indignant spluttering, “I’ll have it for you a day after the Empress arrives.”

“Can you really?” the noble asked in a surly tone. “I’m offering you good coin and a priceless heirloom to procure the Empress’s ring, not for you to fail!”

Not so priceless if he was paying him with it.

“I don’t fail jobs,” Garret replied easily. “Either throw your lot with me or get someone else. I guarantee you won’t find anyone better, but you’re welcome to try.”

The noble eyed him from under the hood waspishly with a set in his jaw.

“Let’s see you put your money where your mouth is,” the noble seethed.

“My money goes into the tools that make jobs like this possible. Where do _yours_ go?”

Even in the dim light, Garrett could make out the flush of bright red creeping up the noble’s neck and into his cheeks as his jaw tightened.

“I do not like that insinuating tone!” he barked, jabbing a finger in Garrett's face.

“It’s only insinuating if you have something to hide,” Garrett said, losing interest in the conversation.

The noble broke into furious squawking. There didn’t seem to be anything else to discuss and Garrett was hired for his light fingers and quick feet, not his ears, so he turned to go, but the noble spoke before he could.

“Where do you think you’re going? I haven’t even dismissed you! There’s one more thing,” he bid through clenched teeth, as though forced to prolong the encounter with Garrett through knifepoint. “I’d watch out for the Empress’s Royal Protector if I were you. He is…” He faltered, all the irritation suddenly bleeding from his tone as he gulped. When he spoke again, there was a faint revenant fear edging his voice. “He’s quite formidable. Don’t let him catch you, or you’ll suffer a fate worse than death.”

Garrett quirked a brow at that. Curious and unnecessarily dramatic, but he’d keep that in mind.

He finally left the alleyway to prepare and to wait.

The Eastwick house, huh? He’d already broken into it once, he could do it again.

\---

The Empress’s arrival was heralded by crowds of curious people and a fanfare of banners and streamers and flowers all along her route thanks to the few remaining nobles who stayed in The City through the fire and brimstone of the riot.

What Watch remained in the city were dressed as pristinely in their uniforms as possible, stationed at intervals everywhere along the road.

The guards of the procession all wore blue uniforms and each carried a sword. Interestingly, some of them were women. A few of them had a long peculiar device made of wood and metal that Garrett could only guess was a weapon.

The Empress herself came in a large boxy, metal carriage that moved by itself. Huh, where was this technology when the Baron decided to make half The City crazy for something resembling that?

The carriage bore a crest of a swan and a crown on its sides and four guards on horses surrounded it. One of them riding on the left was different from the rest.

He didn’t wear the uniform of the other guards but instead, a rich dark outfit with thick gold stitching. That must be the Royal Protector the noble had warned him about. He had a small crossbow attached to his large belt which also held a number of compartments. There was a strange slender object hanging off his side opposite the crossbow, but it was hard for Garrett to make out anything about it from his vantage on the roofs.

Movement in the window drew Garrett’s attention to the face of a young girl who’d drawn the white curtains back. He couldn’t make out her features from this distance but he thought he saw her wave. He was probably right judging from the reaction of the crowd.

The Empress’s carriage was followed by another identical one which was in turn followed by several larger trundling carriages that also moved by themselves. If Garrett had to guess, they were for the Empress’s luggage, but those things could easily store a whole shop’s worth of things. Was Her Royal Majesty bringing her entire house with her? 

He watched the long procession go by like a string of beads but nothing else stood out to him and he left, returning to the Clock Tower to rest and wait until the dregs of the night.

Once the long darkness of the deep hours came, he set off.

At such a late time, the Empress was likely asleep in the second floor bedroom. As tempting as it was to use the hidden tunnel that led directly into it like last time, he wasn’t about to break in using the same route twice. Besides, there were guards on the scaffold now. The ladder was too obvious once it was knocked down. They probably found the tunnel too since it wasn’t exactly hard to miss once someone got up there.

Garrett watched the guards in the square below, everywhere well-lit with torches.

The security was more thorough than the last. Each patrolling guard had a partner and there were a few men stationed at the sides of the garden as well as on the balcony.

Since he went east last time, he would search around the west side for an alternate way in.

Garrett dropped into the shadows and darted to the left through the narrow space between the wall and greenhouse, crouching just out of the range of light as he doused a torch with a water arrow.

The two guards there cried in alarm, attracting their fellows nearby and Garrett took the opportunity to slip past them, relieving them of a few of their coin as he did.

Glancing around, he spotted a beam above him and after ensuring the guard on the balcony wasn’t looking, he shot a rope arrow. It hit its mark and Garrett climbed up, leaping onto the glass roof of the greenhouse but held onto the rope. He pulled it after him and used his dagger to cut off as much as he could.

The rope attached to the beam swung loose, never to be noticed by guards unless they looked up, which no one ever did, ensuring his presence remained like a ghost.

He spotted an open pane a few feet away. That was too obvious to be coincidence. Eastwick loved his secret passages, after all.

He went over and fell into the greenhouse, tossing aside the loose rope. The only reason it could even be called a greenhouse was solely because it was made of glass otherwise, it would’ve made no difference if it were crafted from any other building material. The glass was so grimy it hardly allowed any light in, let alone a clear view in or out.

Garrett ran his eyes over the room carefully, the details of everything around him defined in sharp clarity despite the gloom. His right eye squeezed in what had become a familiar sensation every time he focused nowadays, highlighting the wheel and a rectangle in the wall in helpful blue. He broke from his concentration.

The steam was too hot to get near what was definitely a switch, so he grasped the wheel and turned it.

The hissing died away and he went over to examine the wall.

Even without focusing, he would’ve been able to tell one particular block was different from the rest. He pressed it and moved along with the wall as it rotated to reveal a ladder down.

Garrett smirked and jumped down the short drop.

Audacious of the late Eastwick to hide a secret passage in a glass house. This place was just full of secrets and delights, wasn’t it? It was practically a thief’s playground. He dared admit it was kind of fun, especially without the immediate urgency of a friend trapped in an exploding building to contend with.

Following the tunnel while avoiding the obvious pressure plates in the floor led him to a wooden wall with a round button, which he assumed would open up if he pushed it.

He pressed his ear against the planks for signs that anyone was on the other side and upon hearing none, pressed the button.

It revolved like the stone wall to admit Garrett into a dark cellar.

He helped himself to some jerky and crept up the stairs where a dim light emanated from and peeked between the baluster. Two guards stood in front of a barely lit fireplace in whispering conversation. Their bodies faced the room, but their heads were turned to each other.

Garrett stuck to the shadows edging the light from the chandelier before swooping behind the table and making his way along its length. With another burst of speed, he melded into the awaiting shadows on the other side.

He glanced towards the guards. They were still paying more attention to each other than the room they were supposed to guard. He took the opportunity to relieve the cabinet of a new silver flatware or two before heading to the door.

He peeked through the keyhole just in time to spy a guard strolling past followed closely by another carrying a lantern. Garret assumed some of the other guards had one too.

The handle didn’t resist him as he pulled it and he eased the door shut before swiftly covering the short distance to the stairs and jumping to grasp the rail. His feet found purchase in the spacing between the balustrade and he hauled himself over, ducking as he crept up.

The hairs at the back of his neck prickled. He quickly bound up the rest of the stairs, pressing against the wall. He stilled until the feeling of being noticed went away.

A guard approached from the left, illuminated by the lantern in their hands. Garrett parted from the wall, body leaning forward and legs pushing him up the short flight of stairs to plaster himself beside the entryway into the second hallway.

The men stationed at the rails overlooking the first floor hadn’t noticed him. After ensuring the patrolling guard was still a distance away, Garrett peeked around the entryway.

Through the glow of candle fire, a pair of guards stood on either side of both the bedroom and bathroom door.

Well, that was bothersome. Two guards meant even with a distraction, only one would go check on it. He had to hand it to them, the security so far was pretty good. It probably would’ve foiled a lesser thief.

The guard headed towards him earlier was getting too close. Garrett rounded the wall to the other side, making sure to stay away from the flickering pools of light. He didn’t doubt this hallway would soon be visited by a patrol too, so he needed to act fast.

He fired a water arrow each at the flames of the two only candelabras in the hall.

“Hey!”

“What?”

“Shit, I’ll get a light here, quick!”

One of the bathroom guards sped away and that was the door Garrett flowed to, wearing the deep shadows like a cloak as he crouched in front of the door right next to the remaining guard, surroundings reduced to nothing but the lock as he worked it.

Thumping footsteps of the returning guard covered the quiet click and the turn of the knob as Garrett entered and closed the door with nary a breeze.

He filched the jeweled brush as he went by and cracked open the door leading into the bedroom.

The coast was clear and the bed was in sight.

He stalked in, but froze halfway, a chill creeping down his spine and the breath stuttering in his throat.

The bed was empty.

A weight crashed on top of him, crushing all the air out of his lungs and jarring his head hard enough against the wood floor to make his teeth clack.

Manacle-like hands forced his arms behind his back and he struggled weakly against the grip through the throbbing pain blooming along his temple. The knob of a knee pressed against his lower back, not hard enough to bruise, but definitely strong enough to keep him pinned to the floor.

“You must be the thief General Harlan talked about,” a deep, raspy voice said from above him. He sounded like he could use a glass of water.

It was a trap, but his assailant wasn’t raising the alarm, which meant he wanted something from Garrett. That was going to be his way out.

“All good things, I assume,” Garrett murmured through the pounding in his head and heart, flexing his hands as subtly as he could. “Too bad I didn’t have someone to talk about you.”

“I think you did.”

Garrett ran his tongue over his teeth before saying, “A warning, maybe, but I wouldn’t call that _talk_.”

“Care to tell me who it was?”

“It sounds like you already know.”

The Royal Protector hummed.

“Is this going somewhere or are we going to make small talk all night?” Garrett asked, feeling the bruise left behind by the thankfully receding pain in the side of his head.

A pause and then a sigh.

“I know this city is… alive in a way, and that that consciousness was solidified into a stone.”

Garrett pressed his lips together and evened his breathing, heartbeat calming into a languid rhythm. He _focused_.

“However, because it’s been absorbed by you and one other, everything in this city is falling apart and the rest of the world will follow if it remains this way… Don’t.” The hands tightened. Seemed like he sensed Garrett was about to attempt an escape. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Funny way of showing it,” Garrett said, gaze fixed rigidly at the door.

He wasn’t surprised the Royal Protector knew about the Primal after all. Maybe the Baron did mention it to the capital, but how could the Primal affect a whole world? He didn’t know how big the world was, but The City was probably only a dot in the grand scheme of things. They’ve been a dot in the Empire for this long anyway.

He was tempted to dismiss it as nonsense, but could he really do that when the Primal’s existence itself was nonsense? How could a city be literally alive the way the people who inhabited it was? He didn’t even know the full extent of its powers or what else it could do. Who was to say it couldn’t affect the world?

“You want my shard so you’re taking me into custody, is that it?”

No prison would hold him. He’d prefer being thrown in one than trapped here with a danger he didn’t know much about, even if he was saying some… curious things.

“No, I want to help.”

The nerve behind his right eye throbbed and the sensation raced into his skull in the usual way it did when he’d been focusing for too long. He closed both eyes with a slow breath, waiting for the pain to ebb.

“Do you usually offer help to people you’re pinning down?”

“I do if they’ll run and hide without seeing proof I’m related to this.”

Garrett wanted to sigh. “See”. He didn’t want to see anything right now, but he nonetheless opened his eyes as the Royal Protector transferred both his wrists into one hand and held the other in front of him.

There was a strange symbol on the back of his hand, so dark it looked like it was scorched there except the skin was smooth and the points on it were sharp, lines clean.

Suddenly, it lit in gold and Garrett jerked, groaning as his eye sent a wave of dull pain to his head.

It was nowhere near as bad as when the Primal was used, but enough to know that there was a connection between this and the shard.

The glow faded and so did the pain, leaving Garrett panting for breath.

“I’m going to get off you now. I’d prefer if you didn’t run before I can explain. I don’t want to go through the task of tracking you down,” the Royal Protector grunted as he removed his knee and released his wrists.

Garrett got up, rotating the joint as he turned to take a good look at the man who managed to get the drop on him.

The Royal Protector was a tall man who had half a head on Garrett. In the gloom of faint moonlight through the windows, his silhouette cut an intimidating figure with his black, bulky clothing, even more so with how still he was.

Dark eyes gazed unflinchingly back at him, just as assessing as Garrett’s probably was.

Now that he thought about it, it was near silent when the Royal Protector took him down. There was no scuffling of shoes as he dived off the ledge, no rustling from clothes, and only the muffled thump of Garret’s body sounded when he landed. Now why did a simple royal bodyguard have the skills of a thief… or an assassin? He might wear the finery of bluebloods, but Garrett knew another like him when he saw one.

In any case, he _could_ run, guards be damned. He’d escaped worse situations, but the Royal Protector was a loose end he’d rather not left up in the air. The situation with The City was complicated enough without having an unknown running around, even if Garrett’s feet itched to take him away.

“Well, I’m not running,” he pointed out. If worst came to worst, he could either barge out the bedroom door or slip past the Royal Protector and use the claw to the tunnel. The bars of the windows were made of stone, so that wasn’t an option.

The Royal Protector exhaled and ran a hand over his face in an exhausted gesture and muttered something under his breath.

“There’s a place called the Void,” he began, moving to fold his arms, but stopping halfway and began to lower them. Garrett tracked the motion towards their places near the weapons on his belt, but the Royal Protector slowly folded them behind his back instead. He certainly was working hard to appease Garrett’s wariness, futile as that was. Did he host all uninvited guests with such consideration?

“The Void is… like another world that reflects this one. Someone called the Outsider resides there and he grants powers to people he finds _interesting_.” The Royal Protector grimaced as he said the word like he had a mouthful of greased rat. “He told me about the thing called the Primal in this city and how its energy flows somewhere between this world and the Void, but how that place is fragile. The… other person with the Stone has the power to potentially rip a hole between the worlds and when that happens, the Void will swallow everything.”

“Interesting story,” Garrett drawled, stepping in a wide arc around the Royal Protector, whose head followed him, but he did nothing to prevent him from making his way closer to the exit. “Is giving me a headache a sign that the world is ending or do you have better proof?”

“Why don’t you find it for yourself?” the Royal Protector was quick to rejoin.

Garrett’s lips twitched. He was letting him go?

“You should be fired.”

“It’s hard to be fired when your empress approved this in the first place,” the Royal Protector shot back.

“Not _my_ empress,” Garrett said softly.

The Royal Protector didn't react, unoffended by the rhetorical statement.

What should he do now? He got his primary objective for information, but he couldn’t very well leave empty-handed of his secondary. He wouldn’t suppose the Royal Protector would give him the location of the Empress so he could rob her, would he?

The Royal Protector tilted his head slightly to the side and there was a hint of amusement in his tone as he asked, “You’re not leaving?”

Garrett huffed.

“Thieves don’t leave without the prize.”

The Royal Protector held up a silver fork with a raised brow.

Garrett snorted and held up a ring, eliciting a blink of surprise.

“I’ll trade yours if you trade hers,” he quipped.

Humor glinted in the Royal Protector’s eyes to match the mirth shadowing his lips as he said, “My ring and hers are the same in almost every way except the band. You can take it to the noble and get your reward, if you want. I’ll get it back anyway.”

So the noble would be robbed twice. He liked the way this man thought.

Garrett palmed the ring with a smirk and a nod.

“Good doing business with you.”

He took out the claw to aim it at the tunnel ledge, but paused when something occurred to him.

“So what were you going to do if I never showed up?” he asked, turning to the Royal Protector. “Were you going to crouch up there forever?”

He jerked his head to the secret tunnel invisible in the darkness.

“General Harlan expounded at _great_ length about you.” The corner of Garrett’s mouth curled at the sigh in the Royal Protector’s voice and the way his eyes flicked briefly to the ceiling. “And I already knew one of the nobles was after Emily’s ring. I just put two and two together and… looked out for you.”

“’Looked out’?” Garrett’s pride stung like a needle through his abdomen. He made it sound like it was a simple matter to pick him out in the shadows. “I wasn’t visible.”

“You weren’t, but those people don’t have the ability to see through walls and detect anyone moving behind them.”

“That’s cheating,” Garrett blurted.

The Royal Protector quirked a brow and gave him a pointed if somewhat disbelieving look.

“And I suppose that eye is there as a glowing handicap for the guards.”

“They need all the help they can get, but fair enough,” Garrett conceded.

He returned his attention to the ledge and shot the claw where the head lodged itself securely in the wood.

He climbed up and ducked into the tunnel, retrieving the claw as he did so.

He supposed his next stop would be the Queen of Beggars. If anyone would know the truth of the Royal Protector’s words, or at least point him in the right direction, it’d be her.

If it turned out to be real… well, then he'd see.


End file.
